Have you ever felt tired in class? This could be the result of schools starting too early, and not allowing for students to get the proper amount of sleep. Pushing school start times back would allow for students to get more sleep, protect student drivers, less tardies, and less sleep in class.

While sufficient sleep brings about positive effects, inadequate sleep can be detrimental to students in the classroom. Pushing back school start times would allow teens to get more sleep. Studies have shown when teenagers don’t get enough sleep their safety, health and academics all suffer, according to Florida state Rep. John Temple(Povich, 2023). Continuing this, on average teenagers have a bedtime of 11 p.m., and most public high schools begin their day at 8:00 a.m., so most do not get the recommended hours of sleep according to the National Center for Education Statistics(School Start, 2024). These studies show and explain how the current starting times of schools are too early and do not allow students to get the adequate amount of sleep they need to function properly.

Second, later school start times would cause students to be more attentive in class, and show less tardiness in the first classes of the day. Many schools who have chosen to defer their starting times have reported a depletion of late arrivals, less sleeping in class, and improved attendance, because they followed experts' advice and transferred to later starting times”(School Start, 2024). To add to this, “Scientists are still discovering new benefits of sleep. Research has suggested that sleep is vital to almost all areas of human functioning. Some benefits of sleep are memory & learning, attention, and mental health & well being”(Later School, 2023). These findings help to prove that more sleep for students can be very helpful towards their attention and learning abilities in class, along with helping reduce the amount of tardies and absences.

Lastly, deferring the starting times of high schools can help protect student drivers and other pedestrians and drivers because they will be less tired while driving. According to Povich, “Numerous studies have concluded that the later start times are healthier for kids, reduce juvenile crime, improve grades, boost sports performance and even result in better teenage driving records, because sleepy teens cause more accidents”(Povich, 2023). This quote reasures my statement that less sleepy teens will cause less accidents. To build off this, “The study compared motor vehicle crash rates among adolescents in the differing school start times in Fairfax County, which in the fall of 2015 pushed back school start times by 50 minutes from 7:20 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. Data also were compared to teenage crashes in the rest of the state, where school start times did not change. The analysis also found that the later school start time was associated with a lower rate of distraction-related accidents”(Reduced Crashes, 2020). Both of these provide evidence towards my claim that pushing back starting times will help reduce the number of teen crashes before school.

In conclusion, schools should start later. There are a lot of benefits of schools starting later like, students get more sleep, show more attention in class, along with less tardies, and last of all less car crashes caused by sleepy teen drivers.

Works Cited

Later school times promote adolescent well-being. (2023, October 30). American Psychological Association. Retrieved February 19, 2024, from apa.org/topics/children/school-start-times

School Start Times. (2024). In Gale In Context Online Collection. Gale. link.gale.com/apps/doc/QFGSWX560361343/SUIC?u=elkhornnhs&sid=bookmark-SUIC&xid=9763143f

Study suggests later school start times reduce car crashes, improve teen safety. (2020, February 19). American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Retrieved March 4, 2024, from aasm.org/study-suggests-later-school-start-times-reduce-car-crashes-improve-teen-safety/

Povich, E. S., & Snider, T. Z. (2023, September 13). Hit the snooze button: States debate later high school start times. Stateline.org. Retrieved February 20, 2024, from stateline.org/2023/09/13/hit-the-snooze-button-states-debate-later-high-school-start-times/

Walker, T. (2022, December 1). Later School Start Times More Popular, But What Are the Drawbacks? | NEA. National Education Association. Retrieved February 13, 2024, from nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/later-school-start-times-more-popular-what-are-drawbacks